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History of Jericho Center Country Store

Jericho Center is a wisp of a village tucked within the greater confines of Jericho. Drive through it and you'll pass some historic homes, a community center, a church, a tiny but well-loved library, and a vill

Jericho Center is a wisp of a village tucked within the greater confines of Jericho. Drive through it and you'll pass some historic homes, a community center, a church, a tiny but well-loved library, and a village green surrounding nearly all of it. Across the park sits Jericho Center Country Store, seemingly keeping watch over it all, as it has done for 208 years.

In its heyday, the store sold groceries and horse feed, nails and plumbing supplies, toys and crafts, sewing supplies and clothing, and anything else the owners could stuff on its shelves. In one corner you could find a neat wooden puzzle, in the other corner, way up high in a drawer, that random plumbing valve you'd been looking all over for. There would be no Wal-Marts or Home Depots for years and years, and the store thrived in its sell-it-all general store approach. Its countless general and country store brethren did, too.

The customers packed it in as well, and they were as varied as the wares inside. They would arrive at the store on horseback or buggy and congregate inside for the news and gossip of the day while they shopped or bartered.

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The inside of the Jericho Country Store hasn’t changed much through the years. Doug and Linda St. Amour bought the store in April 2002, Their son Jon is co-owner and manager.(Photo: Ryan Mercer/Free Press)

Store opened in 1807

The store opened in 1807 by a proprietor named Pliny Blackman as a trading post where customers bartered goods like eggs and rum for farm supplies or hardware. Blackman himself would travel north, via raft, on the Winooski River, then into Canada by way of the St. Lawrence. As far north as Montreal he'd acquire what he thought his customers wanted, eventually hauling it all back for barter or resale.

Over the next century, the store would change hands a few times before a pair of industrious brothers, Eugene and Henry Jordan, took ownership near the close of the 19th century. The brothers were savvy businessmen and meticulous marketers. They held credit accounts here at the store for its many regular customers (and whacked them for interest when the payments came late) and flooded the local newspapers and mailboxes with weekly sale flyers and specials. Many of these posters and flyers adorn the store walls today. They thrived at their store, called Jordan Brothers, for nearly four decades.

A view of the Jericho Center Country Store, possibly in the late 1890s.(Photo: Courtesy)

Slowly, horses and buggies gave way to Model T's and Dodge pickups, but the store continued to thrive as both a place of business and the central gathering point of the village. Most of the old stores in the state likewise filled the same need — a place to buy and trade, but also to meet and gossip and to be part of a true community.

Stewards of the town

The store's many owners over the years fought to balance the needs of the community with its own penultimate need to operate a profitable business. While they were merchants first and foremost, ultimately they transcended that title by becoming stewards of the town. The most well-known and well-loved store owners and town stewards were Gerry and Lil Desso. For more than 30 years they ran this store — then called Desso's General Store — as any hard-working, tough-loving couple runs their family: with tough, unyielding love. They bent over backwards to do right by the community but they still had to rise each morning at 5 am to make a buck or two. They served as town fire marshals and public notaries and held public meetings in the store or upstairs, in their home.

They became literal gatekeepers for the town, holding a trove of keys to the church, library, community center, and many homes (a giant bag of keys still remains at the store today, as do keys for those public buildings). They helped supply the church with chickens and supplies for its annual chicken pie supper, along with selling all the tickets. They donated countless goods and services and dollars to town events and schools.

The Rid o Bugs product is just one example of the many “treasures” that have been uncovered in the store and in storage in the basement and attic. The owners also uncovered a (empty) box of embalming fluid, medicines from the 1800s, old books and toys and much more.(Photo: Courtesy)

The people of Jericho Center and beyond still hold Gerry and Lil Desso dear to their hearts. When one describes this store now — where it is or just in casual mention — invariably someone will say something to the tune of, "you know, Desso's Store," though it ceased being known as such nearly 20 years ago now. But it's just fine with the current owners, the St. Amour family, who themselves count Gerry and Lil (who passed away in 2012) as good friends.

Today, Jericho Center Country Store still tries to find the same balance of public service to its community with the need to operate a busy retail operation, as did its forefathers and mothers. Though it no longer acts as town fire marshal or public notary, it does still order chickens and sells tickets for the church's annual chicken pie supper, still holds keys to various town buildings, and still donates products and prizes to town and school events, among many other things.

The W.S. Neely ad is one of the many advertisements found throughout the store.(Photo: Courtesy)

Though very few people ride their horse to the store anymore, people of the center still tend to congregate there. People like Mark the local farmer, Jay the local truck driver, and Ernie the local jack-of-all-trades, still come in all the time and shoot the breeze with store employees. Yet as any old general and country store would now certainly attest, times have changed. People in general are in more of a hurry, look harder to save a buck or two, and turn more to their phones or computers for conversation instead of good old fashion face-to-face conversation.

Wal-Marts and Home Depots and CVS and newer, fancier convenience and grocery stores crop up all the time now, making it harder and harder for the "old" general and country stores to survive.

Some of these old stores just wither and die. Along with it goes a small piece of what Vermont really means. The rest, like Jericho Country Store, try to rebrand themselves as specialty convenience stops, or micro-markets, that carry a small but eclectic array of local products, local micro-brews and wines, and fast but high-quality made-to-order food.

They try to find that one little niche that will keep them in the game, keep them relevant. Maybe it's free wi-fi at the deli counter. Maybe it's a charge account for the "regular" customers. Maybe it's a VT-raised, grass-fed, GMO-free burger with VT bacon on gluten free sourdough. Maybe, just maybe, it's a simple "Hey Jim, how ya doin' today? How's the family?" In other words, something you can't get at Wal-Mart or McDonald's.

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Jon St. Amour is co-owner and manager of operations.(Photo: Ryan Mercer/Free Press)